So, because of a last minute confusion with back to school purchases, clothes shopping, supply buying, and generous grandparents, long story short, I have gotten the amazing and rare opportunity to get

ONE FREE CALCULATOR (spending at most 20 bucks) Courtesy of Staples.

So, I now pass on the decision to those I trust most with a calculator -You, Omni.

So, Omni, which Calculator should I get? I want good games and a good programming experience.

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I'm not worried about SOPA creating censorship, that will not stand for long. I'm worried that they'll succeed in stopping piracy!

What do you mean spending at most 20 bucks? Does that mean they only pay for up to 20 dollars?If it's just any calculator for free, I'd recommend an Nspire CX or the version of the Nspire right before that. The CX is in color and doesn't have the keypad connectivity issues previous calcs had, but the version before runs OS 2.

Edit: I noticed the way you spelled Nspire isn't correct. The first letter of Nspire is capitalized, not the second.

I'd go for the prizm too, its community is only growing and it just keeps getting more and more promising. True, atm there's like 5 playable games out for it, but give it 6 months or so and it'll probably be amazing Second would be the 84, it's prospering as well, and the platform's already "broken in" (so to speak) with a truckload of things to start off with.

@sammymax iirc his parents are paying mostly for it, or he's returning an old one, so he'd only have to pay for part of it and/or the difference

I see that the 84 has the best games and community atm, (wiith the Prism and nSpire closing in) but the only reason I am hesitant not to just get it is because I already have an 83+ BE. It is much better, but I don't want to be missing something.The PRISM and nSpire are looking more and more promising, though.P.S.The deal is, I already have a TI 84+ SE that I don't need. I would have to only pay half of the difference to upgrade, and my parents are chipping in.

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I'm not worried about SOPA creating censorship, that will not stand for long. I'm worried that they'll succeed in stopping piracy!

Ashbad

The problem with the slow progression of the Prizm is that a *lot* of people here own one, but few actually program for it not that many people actually make good use of it. The more actual Prizm users, the batter, you'd be a fine addition.

TI-84 Plus: Great for programming because so many people use it, and because there's Axe and so much more awesomeness already around us.

TI-89 Titanium: Its math system is better than on an Nspire (in my opinion), and its version of TI-BASIC is by far the best for game design (with native sprite support and such). Unfortunately, the 68K calculator community has shrunk in the past few years.

Casio Prizm: Jailbroken, color screen, and a lot of other things make it great for development. Its userbase still isn't nearly as big as for the Nspires, but it's pretty big around here.

TI-Nspire: Programs for the Nspire series are sure to have a sizable audience into the future, what with what's essentially a monopoly over the graphing calculator industry and such.